Open Education Licensing: a toolkit for Australian educators [1510]

Group Admins

Description

Concerns around copyright and licensing have been identified as one of the key factors limiting the introduction of Open Education Practices (OEP) in the Australian Higher Education sector. The use of open practices to improve quality and encourage innovation in online education relies upon the creation and use of effective Open Educational Resources (OER). Institutions and individuals implementing OEP in Australia need clear information and practical tools to ensure that best practice open licensing solutions are adopted for open resources.

Traditionally, Australian higher education sector has a history of relying on blanket statutory licences for the re-use of copyright resources without requiring additional permission, and structuring educational resource development around this. The move into OEP requires a broader understanding of the needs and mechanisms necessary for educators to share and re-use resources and the open licences that will enable this.

A two-year research project was funded by the Australian Government, as an attempt to develop mechanisms to assist and guide OEP practitioners through the diverse range of existing licenses types and options. The Open Education Licensing (OEL) project (www.oel.edu.au) surveyed key stakeholders engaged with OEP at universities around Australia about the licensing information needs of staff working with online resources, and has developed the OEL toolkit to address these needs. The OEL toolkit has been developed specifically to help Australian higher education teachers, developers, policy makers and information professionals understand and act upon the issues around copyright and licensing when creating and dealing with open content. This will assist Australian institutions with the creation of a body of open content that can contribute to innovative teaching and learning strategies, enhance Australian higher education products and services and potentially have a global impact.

This presentation will give an overview of some of the research findings from the OEL project and demonstrate the operation of the OEL toolkit and its potential to contribute to the expansion of OEP in Australian higher education.

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